Mr. Downer unleashes his inner Mary Poppins (sort of)

Found myself doing it again.

Somebody asked me tonight how my week went, and without thinking, i launched into Chicken Little.

Or maybe it sounded more like Eyeore on Nyquil.

It’s funny what you recognize when life forces you to peel back the onion and put yourself back together again.

For the longest time, I didn’t recognize it as a problem because I didn’t care. It’s been my default programming, booting into Woe-Is Me-Mode.

It’s easy to spot the Downers. For one thing, they all have AOL accounts, watch Gilmore Girls and drive Astro vans.

Other ways you can spot members of the Downer family:

  1. They would insist on tartar sauce to go with the fishes and the loaves miracle from the Bible.
  2. Their lives are ruined because McDonald’s has no more Monopoly game pieces.
  3. They just found out their starting quarterback on their fantasy football league has been injured for the season.

Sure life is tough. But I am alive, I have shelter and a wonderful wife and family. And that’s just the start of my many blessings.

So let’s try that conversation again.

“How’d this week go, MIke?”

“Well, it’s exciting to fight through learning a new skill. It’s going to make me stronger and a better person when I get it figured out.”

There, that sounds better. Mary Poppins would be proud.